School Climate & Safety Report Roundup

Sandy Hook Shooting Report

By Evie Blad — December 03, 2013 | Updated: May 29, 2024 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Updated: A previous version of this article had the title School Shootings.

A much-anticipated report on the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School officially confirms some widely reported details of the Dec. 14, 2012, massacre at the Newtown, Conn., school and provides some new insights. But it does not answer the key question of why the gunman planned and carried out the attack.

Adam Lanza, 20, acted alone when he gunned down 26 people at the school, the summary report released last month says, and he used weapons and ammunition that were legally purchased by his mother. While State’s Attorney Stephen Sedensky III found no clear motive, he found items that suggest Lanza had a fascination with mass killings, including a computer game called School Shooting that was found in his home.

The report is the first official information about the police response to the massacre to be made public. It concludes that Mr. Lanza had “significant mental health issues that affected his ability to live a normal life and to interact with others, even those to whom he should have been close,” but mental health professionals who treated him “did not see anything that would have predicted his future behavior.”

A version of this article appeared in the December 04, 2013 edition of Education Week as School Shootings

Events

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

School Climate & Safety Patriotism Debates in American Classrooms: A Timeline
Those debates are heating up again as America's 250th birthday looms.
7 min read
A classroom at Lafargue Elementary School in Effie, Louisiana, on Friday, August 22. The state has implemented new professional development requirements for math teachers in grades 4-8 to help improve student achievement and address learning gaps.
A classroom at an elementary school in Effie, La., on Aug. 22, 2025. Though debates over how to present the American story have been especially heated over the past five years, they've waxed and waned for decades.
Kathleen Flynn for Education Week
School Climate & Safety FAQs: What Schools Should Know About E-Bikes
Answers to seven questions about students' e-bike use and how schools are responding.
4 min read
An e-bike is seen at a retail store in Glenview, Ill., on July 20, 2022.
An e-bike for sale at a store in Glenview, Ill., on July 20, 2022. More students have been riding the motorized two-wheelers to school, leading school districts to establish restrictions on who can ride them and institute safety training.
Nam Y. Huh/AP
School Climate & Safety From Our Research Center See Which Safety Technologies Schools Are Betting On
An EdWeek Research Center Survey finds that schools are investing in detection and AI-powered cameras.
3 min read
ZeroEyes analyst Mario Hernandez demonstrates the use of AI with surveillance cameras to identify visible guns at the company's operations center, Friday, May 10, 2024, in Conshohocken, Pa.  With the increasing use of AI technology, security is changing. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)
ZeroEyes analyst Mario Hernandez demonstrates the use of AI with surveillance cameras to identify visible guns at the company's operations center, on May 10, 2024, in Conshohocken, Pa. School district administrators are investing in acoustic monitoring and passive screening systems to try to make their buildings more secure.
Matt Slocum/AP
School Climate & Safety Drones to Stop School Shootings: Promising Tool or Unproven Strategy?
Schools in two states will test drones meant to respond quickly to school shooters.
6 min read
Drones fly around a mannequin during a demonstration on how to neutralize a shooter in a school, at the headquarters of the startup "Campus Guardian Angel" on May 8, 2026, in Austin, Texas.
Drones fly around a mannequin during a demonstration on how to neutralize a shooter in a school, at the headquarters of Campus Guardian Angel, a school safety startup, on May 8, 2026, in Austin, Texas.
Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP via Getty